It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Through our remaining time in Bali and onto Lombok happy times showered over us like the tropical storms – phew, as it was getting a bit hot at times for JJL. 

We’d made a detour South to Nusa Dua, searching for high speed internet access to enable Mum to do a little bit of work via video conference. You know you’re like a fish out of water in a hotel when you arrive and they say, “don’t you have any luggage?”.  Mum thought…”I agree he made me pack light”. Dad…”I’ve still got 2 unworn shirts, we could’ve packed less”.  Anyhow Baby Barrett was in for the treat of his life as we had been upgraded to a 2 bedroom apartment with a private pool! Let’s just say that BB wasn’t the only one to play fast and loose with his swimwear…

Work completed we sped over to Padangbai. We had in our minds a trip to Lombok and the fast boat departed from here. Plus it was a good place to go diving. We stayed at the Padangbai Beach Resort and commenced 72 hours of being treated beautifully by everyone at the hotel. 

We’ve mentioned before just how keen Balinese people are on babies. Well the people at this hotel were so lovely that we were able to go diving with our very own BB boat babysitter. Jantee (apologies here if Jantee is reading for the poor spelling) was doting on BB from the beginning and she was happy to assist. It meant that we got the chance to dive together for the first time since our honeymoon. Fun was had by all on the boat!

And so began the worst of times. BB got took down by Bali Belly – eek! He dealt with it like a trooper but it was a long 24 hours and we even departed Padangbai early to have a quick check in with a doctor in Kuta. All was well…for BB, but the same couldn’t be said for Mum and Dad. Each of us succumbed to the bug on subsequent nights. We write this tonight with spaghetti bolognese and French fries on order. We are still feeling a little delicate!

Somewhat amazingly despite this we made it over to Lombok but for a slightly shorter trip than had planned. Dad was a little disappointed not to have crossed the Wallace Line by boat in the footsteps of one of his heros, the Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, but our revised method of transport (flying) was best for all. Lombok is lovely. A cleaner, quieter version of it’s big brother. It was made sweeter by our unexpected room upgrade (we’re starting to expect such treatment). Thanks to Maya at Sunset Lavinia Hotel for being so lovely to us and making our visit to Lombok so special.

We made it out for a trip to Benang Stokel and Kelambu waterfalls  catching some great rice field views on route and cheekily using BB needing a nap as an excuse to avoid traditional weaving demonstrations 😴.

We have some good news for those who like to pack light…Dad. We have gifted the buggy to the sister of our current hotel owner. BB is quite happy being in the sling and it was nice to pass it on to a new home. 

Next stop – Vietnam. Mum went there with Sian a few years back. We’re hoping it lives up to the happy memories. We’re also hoping that there is room for some new clothes to make up for the buggy we have donated 😉. 

PS. Dad says the buggy was a separate piece of luggage so doesn’t count…how about some of that hair product, surely Mum doesn’t need that many bottles?

Our flight to Bali from Queensland wasn’t without drama. We arrived at the airport in the evening nice and early only to find out we’d been given the wrong flight times and check in was about to close. To make things worse the flight was overbooked so there were no seats remaining for us. We were facing an overnight stay in a Cairns airport hotel when our luck changed. The plane had a last minute fault so the airline had to swap to another aircraft which incidentally had more seats… space for us, yay!

After an uneventful flight and a night in a Denpasar airport hotel we headed inland to Ubud, the spiritual and artistic capital of Bali. Whatever!… The guest house had a pool directly outside our veranda so that’s all Baby Barrett cared about 😆

The next morning was an early visit to Monkey Forest Temple to avoid the heat of the day. The temple is in a dark atmospheric forest on the edge of town and the temple stone work is covered in damp moss and adorned with the hanging roots of banyan trees. Perfect for BB to play out his Indiana Jones fantasy… however some may doubt who wanted to be Indy (Dad?).

BB was born in the Chinese year of the monkey so Dad was super keen to show him his first monkey. That wasn’t difficult as there were monkeys hiding in every corner, some real and others not.


The afternoon was spent of course… splashing around in the guest house pool.

The next day was a visit out of town to another temple. This time in a steep hidden valley surrounded by lush rice paddies. A scene of tranquility deep in the valley away from the frantic beeping motorbike and lorry filled roads above. The serenity wasn’t even wasted on Mum and Dad who aren’t amongst the most spiritual people to have visited the temple!

That afternoon after more time in the pool BB decided that he needed a new outfit to fit his location – Bintang Yogi Pants Barrett?

Now by this time BB had settled in to Ubud and was schmoozing with the locals. The guest house owners who instantly fell under his blue eyed spell gave him a Balinese name… Wayan Bule Barrett (First born, light skin). He was also a hit with the local ladies. Every time Mum and Dad took him to a cafe or restaurant there was a queue of beauties wanting to whisk him away for cuddles. Also a result for Mum and Dad who got to eat in peace for a change.

Feeling suitably ‘spiritualised’ we left Ubud and headed south. Mum had to do a little bit of work and we needed to find a hotel with high speed internet access….and a pool of course. 

We were all excited to arrive in Queensland. Mum and Dad love to be in the tropics and Jungle Jim was excited about getting his first glimpse of rainforest. Plus he had some shorts with tree frogs on them which had been waiting for a debut. 

Disclaimer – Those of you less interested in the baby side of things should feel free to skip a paragraph… 

Travelling with BB is fun and we felt like we were managing quite well. But daytime naps were getting the better of us. We resorted to buying a book, which advised us that we needed a consistent routine and location for naps – not so easy when on the move. We focused a bit more in getting him asleep before being overtired and stayed in one hotel/apartment and as a result Queensland has been a happy location for us, though we often find ourselves lingering in air conditioned locations whilst the BB has some quality Zzzzzz time. As I write (in a darkened room) BB naps beside me. 

We based ourselves in Port Douglas. So far it is Mum’s favourite place. Loads of places to eat with great seafood, a pretty beach and lots of nice shops where we bought some new outfits for the ever growing BB and a brilliant hotel/apartment called Newport on Macrossan. Thanks to them for a great stay, we were very happy there. 

We went out for a day and dived the Great Barrier Reef. It was fab to dive again, the last time was on our honeymoon in the Maldives. Though it was strange to dive separately as we took it in turns with the bubba. Shout out to Dad for achieving the longest nap of our travels so far (BB not Dad!). 2hr 10 min of sling asleep action on deck whilst mum dived. Sweaty work!!  Rather disappointingly the diving was merely average. Nice coral and good conditions but there was no ‘great’ for us on the Barrier Reef this time.

The next day trip was Mossman Gorge. A lovely 2.6km walk through the rainforest where they have done a great job of making it accessible without over developing it. We refreshed afterwards with a dip in a big pool in the river which runs through the gorge. Mum was on camera duty but failed miserably because she got chased around by a horse fly biting her ass!! Comical to watch from the safety of the water .

We couldn’t leave Queensland without going salty (saltwater crocodile) spotting on the Daintree river and boy did we spot one. His name is Lumpy and he is about 5.5m long. At one point mum got up onto the front of the boat (without BB I might add) and Aussie Ray said ‘I wouldn’t stand up there, not with that being Lumpy’.  Needless to say she moved with some haste. 

A bonus of the trip was spotting a tree frog which Dad was really hoping to see…but not where you would expect… not in the undergrowth but amongst the packets of crisps for sale in the boat company’s shop!

The next day was north across the Daintree river (by car ferry) up to Cape Tribulation where Captain James Cook ran aground in the Endeavour in 1770. This was a nostalgia trip for Dad as he travelled there as a backpacker 16 years ago on his first round the world trip. Not quite as adventurous as Captain James Cook but it was far less developed than it is now… they have sealed roads, cafes and spas now!

Cape Tribulation is all about dense steaming jungle, mangroves and beautiful remote beaches. Whilst they truly are beautiful the beaches are deceptive and have an ominous side, the sea is an absolute no go thanks to stingers (box jellyfish), saltwater crocodiles and sharks. All of which are potentially deadly and even paddling is out of the question thanks to the stingers 😧. 

As you know BB had his 6 month anniversary whilst we were here. In a life void of milestone cards we celebrated by buying him some new togs to fit his rapidly growing long legs and offering him his first taste of ice cream, naughty!!

Bali’s next. We’re sad to leave Queensland but before we go “BB wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else.”

…to be 6 months old and a world traveller?

What’s not to love? Our new apartment in Port Douglas has a swimming pool that is just the right temperature and I get to go swimming most days. Mum and Dad have taken to dunking me underwater. I don’t mind, the look on their faces is hilarious. My favourite game is swimming around the pool with Dad, I kick my feet and splash my arms, it’s brill!!

I was a bit annoyed though as we spent all day at sea the other day and didn’t get to go in the water at all. Apparently I am too young to scuba dive and they didn’t have a wet suit small enough. I did however get my sticky fingers on a slice of melon…and a biscuit, but mum stole that back again. 

Now we’re out of the campervan I have perfected my commando crawl. I love getting into trouble and grabbing anything I can get my hands on. I also love getting my hands on the buggy wheels, they look tasty. Mum and Dad don’t seem so keen on that, I’m not sure why?

I’ve also got a highchair in this new place. I really enjoy hanging out in it. I’m not so keen on mum and dad feeding me with a spoon, I’ve started refusing that. Instead I like to play messily and occasionally pop a little something in my mouth to keep them happy. 

It’s time to move on today, that makes me a bit sad. Mum and Dad have promised the new place has a pool and apparently I am going to be spiritually awakened in Ubud, Bali. I don’t really care as long as I can go swimming and don’t get dressed in tie-dye!!

The view from the window on our flight into the interior gave us a preview of things to come with seemingly endless vistas of red sand and rock. As Europeans it feels crazy that you can fly for 3 hours  across the same country and still only be half way across, let alone trying to comprehend the vast sparsely inhabited emptiness. 

As usual on the flight Baby Barrett charmed the cabin crew by providing liberal flashes of his big blue eyes. It only took one glance in her direction and it was love at first sight. Jamie’s gaze locked with BB’s during safety briefing and the romance began.

As was inevitable with such a whirlwind romance, hearts were broken when we landed and they had to go their separate ways 😒

We imagined Ayers Rock (Uluru) in person would be similar to seeing the Taj Mahal – bear with us here. Of course it is stunning and you have seen pictures of it again and again but in person it offers something much more. The Taj offered majestic beauty, calmness and a bit of sadness (not just because of that Princess Di photo 😉). 

Ayers Rock was majestic too but also glowing with a welcoming warmth. The colour of the rock was amazing and it changed as the sun moved lower in the sky. The sunset was just beautiful although only one of us can attest to this. The other two headed home for bed and bath…

The real surprise of the visit were the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). Huge boulder rocks with gorges running through them. We headed out at sunrise (all three this time)…a hideous 4:45am get up but it was worth it for the wonderful views

This was followed by a walk through the Valley of the Winds at 6:30am. The heat meant the early start was essential for BB but we didn’t complete the full 5km loop as we didn’t want him dehydrating. 

Nevertheless we paid in spades for the early get up. We had imagined a family nap later in the day to catch up on the lost sleep – oh how naive we are as BB had other ideas!!

A quick thanks for all the comments we have received on the blog. Seems likes Baby Barrett’s submission was a big hit so for those of you wondering how much fun the bubba is having, fear not, Ayers Rock resort had a swimming pool. 

Without thermal warmth we’d become accustomed to in NZ we weren’t sure if we would have fun, but we did. In fact BB had more fun than Mum; “I have to get in the pool, if my son can handle the temperate so can I… squeal!!!!”.

In general we could take or leave the Ayers Rock resort itself. The restaurants were pretty poor (of course we were too tight to spend money on the posh ones) so the highlight of our evenings there was watching ‘Eddie the Eagle’ one night in our appartmrnt and hoping that BB has crazy dreams of greatness of his own when he gets older. 

It got to the high 30s each day and as expected we sheltered indoors mainly from 10am – 4pm. So after a few days once we’d seen the sights it was time to move on.

The next stop was Queensland and the Barrier Reef. By now we’d found our routine for the flights so we’d buckled BB in and settled into the safety briefing as usual. Then we noticed that something down the isle was distracting BB… there she was again, Jamie, the romance was back on!

PS. Thanks Jamie for looking after the 3 of us so well on both flights 😊

PPS. Dear reader, Baby Barrett is 6 months old on November 9th. We’ll try to celebrate in style…watch this space. 

We’d heard lots of good things about Melbourne with it’s cool laneway cafes, street art and hip hangouts, but in all honesty the main reason for us heading there was to catch up with friends…. since neither of us are even remotely cool, arty or hip.

We’ll start by thanking Tez and Sze-Ee for hosting and looking after us so warmly and generously throughout our time in Melbourne. We arrived about 1am at their apartment bleary eyed and looking (and smelling) like we’d spent a month in a camper in the wilds of New Zealand. They immediately made us feel at home, and we immediately made there beautiful home look like a bomb site. 

The next morning was spent scrubbing off the grime from camping before heading into the city to wander the cool laneways (far too cool for us). The following day was a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup so the city had the bubbling atmosphere of a town getting ready to party. Not being part of the celebrations but not wanting to miss out we met up with Siobhan one of Mum’s friends in a cafe with a good vantage point near the Yarra river to watch events unfold.

The next day we headed out of town South to Mt Martha on the the Mornington Peninsular to meet Jodie, one of Dad’s old friends for brunch.

From there with full bellies and recommendations of places to visit from Jodie we headed to Arthur’s Seat which has an amazing view point over the peninsular. Then of course on to a vineyard (Stonier Wines) to compare what the peninsular has to offer using our newly NZ educated palettes.
The next stop was the Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary for some marsupial spotting. The idea was to give Baby Barrett his first view of kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and koalas however we are not sure who enjoyed it the most, Mum or BB?… Especially since BB slept through the koala feeding session where Mum seemed to think she was a koala whisperer.

Our final day in Melbourne was spent chilling out and preparing for the next leg of our trip, up into Australia’s red centre. We also hit a milestone marker in our travels by posting home our cold weather clothing. It’s +28 degrees from here onwards as we slowly make our way North toward the tropics 😎

We are sooo grateful Tez and Sze-Ee for looking after us during our stay in Melbourne. Like with all the friends and strangers we have met along the way, their generosity, kindness and brilliant company (and Tez’s Japanese whiskey stash) has made us realise that we need to up our hosting game when back in the U.K. So upon our return we declare our house an always open house to friends and fellow travellers in need.

We recovered from the grey of Greymouth and headed South down the West coast to the glaciers. These had big billings…can they possibly live up to expectations? Hell yeah! 

We splashed some cash on a helicopter ride over Franz Josef and Fox glaciers with a glimpse of Mount Cook rolled in. Baby Barrett insisted on the helicopter so it was just for him, honest 😉 He coped well with the flight swooping over the glaciers and Mum only screamed twice! We got super lucky with the weather – clear blue skies which made everything so much more spectacular and BB ‘threw’ his first snowball.

The other big billings of the South Island were Queenstown and Milford Sound. Unfortunately our great weather luck ran out and our flight from Wanaka to Milford was cancelled twice. We decided not to put BB through the long drive to Milford so we will rely on postcards like everyone else.

Instead of the drive further South we headed East to ‘Penguinville’ – Oamaru. And spent the evening watching around 150, 30cm tall blue penguins waddle home to nest. 

Oamaru was a super cool town with an old Victorian quandrant which is pretty rare in NZ. We did what all true Brits would do…headed for a pub and had roast beef. We can confirm that Baby Barrett is a firm fan of beef, yorkshires, roast potatoes and peas and will tolerate a bit of cauliflower. Nice work…shame about their carpet after BB scattered half of his dinner on the floor! It’s a great town (and brewery) and we would recommend a visit. 

Since photos of penguins were forbidden (even the Chinese tourists attempts were thwarted) a certain Dad was getting camera withdrawal symptoms so we headed back inland to check out the lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki. Plus we’d heard a rumour of yet another thermal pool in Tekapo.

 As we headed inland the weather cleared and we found ourselves staring at Mount Cook across lake Pukaki. It was so enticing we motored the 55km to Mount Cook village (The Hermitage) to take a closer look. 

Our list of NZ loves are growing – the scenery of course, excellent coffee, cakes, portion sizes. But New Zealanders are also entrepreneurial and special thanks goes out to ‘The Shot @ Tekapo’. Putting a space age coffee machine in the boot of a car and offering it to sleep starved mums at 7am is a brilliant idea. Mum loves that lady!!

We finished our trip in Christchurch. Visiting an old school friend, Greg and family, who visited a decade or so ago and decided there was no better place to settle. Thanks for having us!!

Christchurch was hit by the big earthquakes in 2010/11. We were told that much of the city is still being rebuilt but still nothing prepared us for the sight. It was eerie and pretty sad. They are doing some funky things with the space – a market and mall built from shipping containers for one. I think that in a decade or so a quirky cool city will emerge with a lovely colonial undertone but it will take a while. 

We have one final thing to add to the list of things to love about NZ… nope not the campervan! That’s the acts of kindness from strangers. We were struggling to find a cab from the city to the airport and time was getting tight for our flight. A random guy (Phil) and his two boys stepped in and gave us a lift across town to the airport and saved the day. This was one of many such acts by strangers we encountered along the way and we are humbled by the generosity, warmth and kindness of the Kiwis.

As we leave NZ here are 2 quotes from the road which sum up our experience of travelling for an extended period and camper vanning quite nicely…

Dad – “I’ve only been on holiday for 3 weeks and I’ve forgotten how to set my alarm clock already”.

Mum – “A benefit of travelling by camper is that it’s not too far to the fridge to get to the wine”

Next stop Australia! 😎

The holiday has been OK so far…but there seems to be a bit too much wine tasting (mum) and photo taking (dad) for my liking. However today was different…

8am – Woke up next to my Dad this morning – yay!

9am – Bath time but this time was a lot more fun than usual.

10:30am – Travelling in the car is a bit boring. Time for a snooze…need to shut out my mum’s singing. I think she thinks it helps me sleep!!

Midday – Stopped off for some lunch in Fairlie. I had some of my Mum’s leek and potato soup and some sweet potato. The place was called Eat Deli and Bar – it was fab! I got a massive high chair to sit in but the best was still to come…a big playroom! I’ve played a lot with the Lamaze butterfly (thanks Aunty Kerryann) but I wanted something new. There was a snakes and ladders rug, a push along truck and some soft toys. I played for about an hour until my Mum and Dad thought they had better leave before we outstayed our welcome. 

4pm – We arrived at Lake Tekapo and was promised hot spring action. But only after I had a nap…boring!!

5:30pm – Yay more hot springs. 

6:30pm – I went duck and rabbit spotting. 

7pm – Dinner was my first taste of avocado, some more sweet potato and some chicken. Mum and Dad had wine…and some food. 

8pm – Bed time. Here’s hoping tomorrow is as much fun!!

The South Island had a big, bold and beautiful reputation so we were keen to hit the road after a quick pit stop in Picton. We faced the most critical decision of our holiday so far – West for craft beer (Nelson) and East for wine (Marlborough). Wine won out not least because our well repaired roof required some more permanent attention in Christchurch part way down the East coast.

We had reflected on our North island capers and decided to take it a bit easier for the second half of our trip. Limiting the km travelled each day and doing more mid point stop offs. 

Hurray for mid journey stop offs, the first was the Peter Yealands vineyard just South of Marlborough. New Zealand does many things well and wine and vineyards are two of them. 

Yealands is the first vineyard to become carbon neutral in the world it is an impressive and stunning place to visit, oh and the wine tasted alright too. For those Marlborough connoisseurs this vineyard is a little higher and further South than the main set and so the taste was quite different, ‘minerally’ I believe we were told. 

From there we continued South, destination Kaikoura, slower than expected though thanks to daddy stopping the van around every corner to take yet another photo of the scenery.

Kaikoura is beautiful with a breathtaking mountain backdrop and a fab seal colony at the end of the peninsula. Baby Barrett slept through two sets of seal viewings which we thoroughly enjoyed. The only annoyance was the whale watching company having a policy of minimum 3 years old for going on their excursions, silly in our mind as Baby Barrett would be strapped to one of us. We consoled ourselves with crayfish for lunch instead! 

Time to move on and we made our way further South to Hamner Springs since Baby Barrett has developed an addiction to thermals pools. He’s going to be so disappointed when we return to the UK… Clissold leisure centre baby pool just won’t cut it. 

From there we headed West crossing the backbone of the Southern alps via the dramatic Arthur’s Pass. Baby Barrett held up to the twists and turns in the road well and didn’t complain too much about the frequency of daddy’s photo stops.
We can also report that Arthurs Pass village cafe serves mean ANZAC cookies and good coffee (cakes now being a daily occurrence… Another thing to add to the list of things New Zealand does well) #holidaybelly. 

Arthur spat us out onto the West coast at Greymouth. It is grey. We got our first introduction to the West coast’s sandflies (ferocious & persistent). We left. Enough said. 

We’ve been reading blogs penned by others to get some tips on New Zealand routes, places to visit etc. We’re therefore struck by how useless this Blog is going to be for anyone trying to seek out facts and details to help plan their own trip. Watch out dear reader…facts ahoy coming up!!

We were reaching the end of our North Island jaunt and decided to break up a long journey in a little place called Martinborough. Like the rest of NZ all shops except the supermarket closed at 4:30, assuming that is they opened at all because it is ‘winter’. Should you ever find yourself in Martinborough I can promise you that the Penang curry in the Thai restaurant is far better than one might expect looking at their plastic menus. And I’d definitely recommend nicking a good handful of the complimentary jelly-beans on the counter. See I’ve already bored myself with all these facts!!

We’ve been native campers now for almost 2 weeks. We are proud holders (little bit embarrassed) of our Top 10 campsite membership card. Hot showers and occasional hairdryers sold it for me alongside discounts at campsites and beyond (I am a changed woman!!). 

Now by this point we’d already had a few minor camper van issues. A broken fridge which meant we had to take a diversion back to Auckland on our way down from the Bay of Islands to get the van swapped. A leaking window seal which we discovered on a very wet and windy night in Rotorua… of course it had to be above daddy’s side of the bed. Then a chipped windscreen thanks to a speeding oncoming truck. 

On hearing this you probably think we’d had our run of bad luck. After all bad things are supposed to happen in three’s.

The guide book warned of the difficulty of parking in Wellington city centre but our confidence of finding somewhere was high so we gave it a shot. Four car parks and several laps of Wellington’s one way system later our good tempers were beginning to wear thin. Just as we were about to give up daddy spotted some empty spaces in the Westpac stadium car park. Yes the ceiling looked low but the van seemed just fit under, until… crunch! Imagine the scene, carefully reversing out of the car park then scurrying around trying to pick up the pieces of the shattered roof vent/sky light. 

A 1ft square hole in the roof is not ideal in spring in New Zealand when rain is an almost daily occurrence. The campervan company called an ‘error of judgement’? Let’s just say that the observant hotel man was dead right when he said our van was unusually tall. Oops!!!

The Carey’s came to our rescue and offered us refuge for the evening. They asked if we wanted to stay with them or in the van and Lucy practically chained herself to their sofa. A real sofa…yay!!!

Mike and family were beacons of joy and we can’t thank them enough for their hospitality, generosity, food, wine, bed, sofa…gaffer tape and step ladder. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Carey’s for looking after us – we are indebted to you big style. 

Other than the ‘error of judgement’ we liked Wellington. Craft beer assisted with overcoming shock and the weather was beautiful. We walked up to the Mount Victoria viewpoint and had the most glorious vista of the city. We also visited Te Papa the amazing museum and like the rest of NZ we are delighted to inform you that their long black coffee and muffins are top notch. 

With trepidation we boarded the ferry to the South Island. I need not have worried, there were no low ceilings for us to drive into and Baby Barrett slept for a good chunk of the journey…in Daddy’s arms. 

Our first glimpse of the South Island suggests it is a stunner like everyone said. We can’t wait to explore further